No Joke: With Lumia, Nokia Crushes The iPhone

In both physical and UI design, the struggling Finnish manufacturer delivers a solid rival to the reigning smartphone.

After attending CES earlier in the month, I felt something major had happened: The iPhone had finally met its rivals in the form of Nokia’s Lumia 800 and 900, equipped with Windows 7’s Metro UI.

Let me be clear, Nokia’s phones are better than Apple’s, both in terms of physical and digital design. Supple, amiable, vibrant, and durable, the Lumia 800 and the slightly larger 900 are the new kings of smartphone design. The body has an original signature corner that combines two forms: the vertical tubular main form meets a rounded window for the screen. It’s a fresh look at a detail many mobile phone designers tackled before. The Apple halo effect forced many design teams toward the familiar solution: a two-dimensional rounded form surrounding a screen. Nokia was brave enough to forge its own path to arriving at highly effective way of differentiating the Lumia from the rest of the pack.

Editor’s Note

Does this great UI signal that Microsoft is back on the rise? Maybe not. They have trouble translating design hits into an overarching company ethos, as this startling admission shows.

The mono-block plastic body is light yet solid as a rock, and the satin finish feels great in the hand. It isn’t trying to be a jewel; it is a tool for modern, mobile living. It even has a normal USB port concealed under a color-matched door! Speaking of colors, by using vibrant cyan, light magenta, and lime, Nokia has created a youthful, Millennial-type feel–positive, dynamic, and cool without being pretentious. The phone also includes an amazingly cute earpiece that pops put of its pebble-shaped charging base and a wireless speaker made from solid aluminum with a fabric top.